چکیده انگلیسی

This study adopts the premise that innovation capability underpins a service firm's value creation ability and that management style, employee behaviors and marketing underpin its innovation capability. This study examines the role of managers and employees in the creation and delivery of superior value to customers via the firm's innovation capability. To test this premise the current study examines the role of transformational leadership (TFL) as an aspect of the service firm's management style in creating and delivering value to customers through its services. This study adopts a multi-level study, collecting data from managers, employees and customers of service firms in a Southeast-Asian country, Cambodia. The results show that a service firm's innovation capability has a positive effect on the firm's value offering (VO), the VO has a positive relationship with customer perceived value-in use (PVI), and PVI has a positive relationship with firm performance. This study also finds moderating effects of TFL on the relationship between service innovation capability and VO, and of service marketing capability on the relationship between VO and PVI respectively.

مقدمه انگلیسی

While scholars have increasingly put effort into trying to understand the value creation process, at present little consensus exists on what value creation is and whether the customers actually receive the value the firm seeks to create in the requisite form and level (Bowman and Ambrosini, 2000 and Lepak et al., 2007). Two streams of research exist within this research domain. One stream focuses on value from the managerial perspective (e.g., Ngo and O'Cass, 2009, O'Cass and Ngo, 2010 and Sirmon et al., 2007), while the second stream focuses on value from the customers' perspective (e.g., DeSarbo et al., 2001, Priem, 2007 and Ulaga and Eggert, 2006). However, Bowman and Ambrosini (2000) proffer that value creation is a multi-stage process involving different users of value at different points in the process. Therefore, integrating both streams and using the perspectives of both the firm and the customer simultaneously may help advance the value creation literature.
In synthesizing Bowman and Ambrosini's (2000) view of the value creation process, O'Cass and Ngo (2010) argue that value creation is a three-stage process by which the firm creates use value [referring here to the firm's value offering (VO)] (within the manager's perspective) at the point of proposition, while the customers subjectively õassess perceived use value [referring here to customer perceived value-in use (PVI)] (within the customer's perspective), and the customers realize exchange value [referring here to customer-based performance (CBP)] at the point of exchange via the firm–customer interaction. Importantly, these VO, PVI, and CBP have the capacity to underpin the firm competitiveness as the competitiveness of any firm depends largely on its ability to understand what value customers are looking for (e.g., DeSarbo et al., 2001 and O'Cass and Ngo, 2010) and also the ability to create that value for its customers (e.g., Sirmon et al., 2007). The ability to create value is important as increasing global competition puts tremendous pressures on firms to be more innovative and to create superior value for customers (Ngo & O'Cass, 2009).
When competition intensifies and the pace of technological change accelerates, one avenue available to service firms is to renew their marketplace offerings in the effort to create superior value for customers through innovation in their services (Paswan, D'Souza, & Zolfagharian, 2009). Yet, surprisingly while many studies investigate the relationship between service innovation and financial performance (e.g., Avlonitis et al., 2001 and Grawe et al., 2009), scholars pay little attention to innovation capability and its contributions to the firm's VO (Ngo & O'Cass, 2009). This study aims to extend the current literature on value creation by examining the impact of service innovation capability on VO. Adopting the premise that a connection between a firm's service innovation capability and its VO exists, this study focuses on the role of managers and employees in the creation of superior value for customers. Liao and Chuang (2004) argue that front-line service employees play a pivotal role in creating and delivering high quality service. Extending this argument, the study posits that front-line service employees also play a critical role in creating and delivering superior value to customers.
Building on the work of Liao and Chuang (2004), this study examines transformational leadership (TFL) as an aspect of firm internal functioning (Bass, 1985) and explores the impact of TFL on the relationship between a service firm's innovation capability and its VO, which refers here to the employee service performance in creating certain types of value for customers in the services they deliver. By integrating leadership style, service innovation and value creation, this study extends the boundaries of value creation research and offers a unique perspective of the impact of TFL on service firm's innovation capability and VO.
In addition to the roles of managers and employees in the creation and delivery of the firm's VO, this study raises issues in relations to the role of service marketing capability in the value creation and delivery process. As Bowman and Ambrosini (2000) argue, once a firm creates and delivers its VO, it is the customer who then subjectively determines whether he/she receives the VO (referring to perceived value-in use or PVI) as he/she is the final arbiter of value. This paper raises the contention that while the service itself adds value, it also relies on how the firm actively communicates their VO to the customers through creative marketing efforts to enhance PVI (e.g., Bowman & Ambrosini, 2000). Further, service marketing capability plays a key role in creating awareness and the meaning of the firm's services (Berry, 2000). Building on these contentions, this study investigates the impact of service marketing capability on the relationship between VO and PVI which is the employee service performance in delivering the firm's VO to the customer.

نتیجه گیری انگلیسی

Given the findings, this study offers several distinct contributions. The findings showing a significant relationship between service innovation capability and the firm's VO (H1) support the proposition that service innovation capability is a key contributor to the creation of value for customers. The findings highlight the importance of service innovation capability as sources of creating superior value offering for the customers. Particularly, the findings lend empirical support to the previously untested proposition in value-based competition theory suggesting that a superior value offering comes from a firm's ability to successfully exploit its innovative capabilities (Slater and Narvar, 1994 and Srivastava et al., 2001). In addition, the findings also help validate the theoretical conjecture that competitive success depends on transforming a firm's key processes into strategic capabilities that consistently offer superior value to customers (Stalk et al., 1992). Importantly, while past research considers service innovation capability as a primary predictor of firm financial performance (e.g., Avlonitis et al., 2001 and Grawe et al., 2009), this study is among the first to examine the impact of service firm's innovation capability on its VO and PVI simultaneously.
Past research considers transformational leadership (TFL) as a primary predictor of innovation performance (e.g., Gumusluoglu and Ilsev, 2008 and Jung et al., 2003). However, this study adopts the premise and shows that since the underlying premise of TFL is that leaders motivate employees to be more cooperative and enthusiastic in creating value for customers of the service firms (e.g., Chuang and Liao, 2010 and Liao and Chuang, 2004), where leaders encourage employees to meet service requirement in value creating ways, TFL does not produce a direct effect on innovation. Instead, TFL plays a key role in shaping the link between service firm's innovation capability and its ability to create superior value for customers. As such, this study positions TFL as a key contingency factor and shows a significant moderating role for TFL on the relationship between a service firm's service innovation capability and VO (H2). Extending leadership theory, the findings shed additional light on the effect of manager's characteristics in enhancing a service firm's innovation capability in its efforts to create superior value for customers. Leaders are the role models for employees and are the motivational force in shaping employees, firm's creativity and service innovation. This creativity and innovative behavior can create superior value for customers because of the supporting role that TFL plays in enhancing a wide array of employee behaviors that support value creation.
Further, the findings showing a significant relationship between service innovation capability and VO (H1), VO and PVI (H3) and PVI with customer-based performance (H4) add merit to the growing stream of work relating to positional advantage literature (Day and Wensley, 1988 and Hult and Ketchen, 2001). The results support the previously untested contention that firms must first utilize their distinct capabilities to achieve positional advantage. Importantly, it is the positional advantage that enables the firms to achieve their goals. In this context, service innovation capability helps firms create superior value for customers (VO) and only when the firm's VO meets customer's expectation (PVI) does the firm then enjoy a competitive advantages and increased wealth (e.g., customer satisfaction, retention, and the like that guarantee long-term profit margins). While scholars such as Bowman and Ambrosini (2000), Lepak et al. (2007) and others raise a similar point about the firm's distinctive capabilities (service innovation capability) – positional advantage (VO and PVI) – firm's goals (customer-based performance), these scholars limit the discussion at a conceptual level. This study is the first to help advance the theory by empirically validating such relationships.
Value creation is a multi-stage process involving two key stakeholders (firms and customers). Firms seek to create superior value that meets customer's expectations, and in this sense customers are the final arbiters of value (Bowman & Ambrosini, 2000). Prior studies empirically examine value either from the firm's perspective (e.g., O'Cass & Ngo, 2010) or customer's perspective (e.g., Ulaga & Eggert, 2006). This study argues that by taking into account the view of one (either the firm or the customer only) at the expense of the other in examining value provides an incomplete model and reduces understanding of the nature of value. This study, therefore, takes the view that to provide a complete understanding of value, academics and managers should take into account the view of both the firms and the customers simultaneously. As such, this study also advances the value literature by integrating both firm and customer perspectives in a single model. Hence, bringing together the perspectives of firms and customers in examining value helps build greater robustness in the value literature and broaden our understanding of how stakeholders (firms and customers) achieve value in this multi-stage, multi-dimensional process.
Finally, past research considers marketing capability as a primary predictor of firm performance (e.g., Morgan et al., 2009 and Vorhies et al., 2009). However, within the services and value creation context, the key role of service marketing capability is to communicate realistic expectations of the firm's ability to create and deliver value to customers, especially in the pre-purchase and consumption stage. Therefore, this study positions and shows service marketing capabilities roles as a key contingency factor in the relationship between customers perceived value-in use (PVI) and customer-based performance (H5). The findings provide additional insight into understanding the important role of marketing in communicating the right value to the customer via the firm's value proposition. Further, the findings are of significance given the state of the current literature which has to-date not theorized and tested the role of service marketing capability in enhancing the VO–PVI relationship.
From a managerial perspective, this study highlights key implications in relation to the value creation process. The findings validate the positive effect of service innovation capability on the firm's value offering. This provides managers with practical guidelines in the quest for creating and delivering superior value to customers. Firms need to invest in developing superior innovation capability and this is achievable if managers adopt TFL as their management philosophy. Managers need to understand that maximizing value attached to their firms' service is the primary indicator of business success. In addition, leadership style is also critical for managers to take into consideration. Leadership style plays a critical role in motivating employees to be more creative, thereby, enhancing service innovation capability as the driver of creating and delivering value to customers. This study offers guidance to managers that TFL is an important type of leadership that helps service firms shape their innovation capability. In this sense, firms can achieve a greater connection between service innovation and VO. TFL is the management approach which can enhance employee commitment and willingness to work harder in developing superior VO for customers.
The findings also suggest that firms that wish to create superior VO should carry out a systematic customer value analysis by assessing customer's desired value offering components, and through innovation firms enhance the ability to create value in the VO. Upon creating value for customers, firms must communicate this value precisely to customers because customers have the final say in whether or not the value the firms offer is the value they seek and receive. When a firm achieves the congruence between VO and PVI, firms can satisfy customers who will then stay loyal and recommend the firm to other customers. Doing this may help managers not only in the evaluation of their existing VO, but also in the development of future VO tailored to what customers seek.
Importantly, the findings also provide a useful signal to managers that they should be aware that service marketing capability plays an important role in communicating and delivering their VO correctly to the customers. They also need to be aware of how marketing actively enhances the creation (VO) and delivery of value (PVI) (e.g., Bowman & Ambrosini, 2000). They should also be aware that value in the service offering cannot be faked, since the firm's true value emerges in the customer's actual experience with the service itself. Therefore, the firm via its marketing and even employees cannot communicate nonexistent value to the customers since such an insincere act would lead to customer frustration and dissatisfaction in consuming the service as the discrepancy between VO and PVI would be seen by customers. Customer frustration may damage the firm's credibility since word-of-mouth communications become significant with services, and with customers sharing their feelings with other potential customers (see also Berry, 2000).